School of Social Work

Social Work Building, Room 201
p - 516.877.4300
f - 516) 877.4392
w - socialwork.adelphi.edu

Joann Corbin, Dean
p - 516.877.4439
e - jcorbin@adelphi.edu

Administration

socialwork.adelphi.edu/about-the-school/who-we-are/administration/

Schanica Pickens Assistant Dean, Student Affairs Elizabeth Szpilka, Director of Outreach, Enrollment & Professional Advisement Livia Polise, Director of Practicum Education Telvis Rich, Director of B.S.W. Program Elizabeth Palley, Director of Ph.D. Program Renee Rawcliffe, Director of Continuing Education and Professional Development

Faculty

Professors Wahiba Abu-Rass Beverly Araujo Dawson Roni Berger Carol Cohen CarolAnn Daniel Richard Francoeur  Elizabeth Palley Subadra Panchanadeswaran Philip Rozario Associate Professors Richard Belson Elizabeth Counselman Carpenter Patricia A. Joyce Daniel Kaplan Tae Kuen Kim Stavroula Kyriakakis Chrisann Newransky Geoffrey Ream Rani Varghese Bradley Zodikoff

Assistant Professors Sara Terrana Yiqi Zhu   Clinical Professors Joanne Quinn-Beers, Clinical Assistant

The School of Social Work is accredited by the Council on Social Work Education (C.S.W.E.) at both the baccalaureate and master’s levels.

Mission Statement

The Adelphi University School of Social Work is a student centered and engaged community that prepares reflective practitioners, leaders, scholars, and educators to work in collaboration with global and diverse communities in solving complex problems and producing knowledge. We prepare B.S.W, M.S.W, and doctoral students to be lifelong learners for effective, ethical, antiracist and anti-oppressive practice striving for social justice and human rights for a global and diverse society.
 

Goals

1. Goal #1: To provide students with an integrative and responsive course of study built upon a broad liberal arts foundation and the principles of antiracism and anti-oppression to prepare them for effective generalist practice that promote social justice, social change and human well-being in diverse contexts.

   Goal #2: To promote faculty scholarship and research that produces knowledge that informs and advances theory, practice, and policy in social work and allied fields towards the goal of transforming oppressive and racist policies and practices
   that negatively impacts the well-being of client systems. 

   Goal #3: To provide leadership and collaboration with community stakeholders to identify and address unmet and emergent needs, and to strengthen organizational capacity to develop policies and service delivery systems that are inclusive,
   equitable and diverse.

   Goal # 4: To create spaces, policies and practices that hold us accountable individually and collectively to cultivate inclusive, equitable and mutually respectful relationships within our own community of students, faculty,
   administrators and staff.

Professional Philosophy for the School of Social Work

Social work is a profession that seeks to ameliorate human suffering. It is committed to social justice and to work for the resolution of social problems at the individual, group, and community levels. Guided by the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) code of ethics as well as its conviction that people have the potential to redirect their lives individually and collectively, it uses professional knowledge to bring about change that will result in a better quality of life for individuals and communities. This commitment is based upon the assumption that people, individually and collectively, are redeemable, and that strategies to enhance and restore a capacity for social functioning are both capable of discovery and teachable. Multidisciplinary knowledge gleaned from the arts and sciences is essential to the education of social workers, for the profession requires learned human beings who have been exposed to a breadth of ideas and information. Social work education is grounded in the belief that environmental influences affect the development and well-being of people and must be taken into account when assessing behavior and life situations.

Practicum Education

The Council On Social Work Education (C.S.W.E.) refers to practicum education as the “signature pedagogy” of social work education. Your practicum education course, also known as your practicum or internship, will provide opportunities to apply and integrate the theory and knowledge you learn in the classroom through direct practice with organizations, communities, groups, families, and individuals.

Your practicum will challenge you to move beyond your comfort zone, and help you learn to problem solve in creative ways that enhance both personal and professional growth. You will be part of a profession that has, at its core, an ethical imperative to challenge injustice and promote equity for all people, particularly those from historically minoritized groups.

The Adelphi University School of Social Work uses a liberatory consciousness framework to operationalize social work values and ethics in practicum education.Through ongoing self-interrogation and brave conversations in the practicum setting, professional development training for students, and ongoing training for liaisons, instructors and other agency and community partners, our program aims to build teaching-learning communities that: 

• Explore and analyze power dynamics in a social context through personal reflection and dialogue;
• Cultivate critical consciousness and reflexivity;
• Promote change in individuals, systems, and organizations;
• Emphasize reflection and action towards social justice.

As an undergraduate or graduate student in the Adelphi University School of Social Work, you will be assigned to your practicum in one of the many organizations that the School is affiliated with. These include: 

• Child welfare and foster care providers
• Behavioral health care addressing substance use and mental health disorders
• Case management services for children or adults with complex medical and/or psychiatric needs
• Community-based services, such as community centers, regional programs to support people who are unhoused or people dealing with food insecurity, and programs serving older adults
• Hospital inpatient services for acute medical or psychiatric needs
• Libraries
• Outpatient medical clinics serving children, adults and older adults
• Police precincts
• Programs serving people with developmental or other disabilities
• Skilled nursing and rehabilitation facilities
• Re-entry programs
• Residential treatment facilities 
• Schools
• Shelters serving unhoused individuals and families
• Veterans programs
• Youth development programs

All practicums are in-person and site-based at one of the School’s partner organizations. In alignment with agency needs and schedules, students must have weekday, daytime availability for practicum courses.

The minimum required hours for practicum instruction are as follows:

• All M.S.W. students attend practicum for 15 hours/week, for a total minimum of 450 site-based hours each academic year. MSW students also complete an additional 25 hours of professional development and social action activities. 
• B.S.W. Generalist students (Seniors) attend practicum for 11 hours each week, for a minimum of 350 site-based hours for the academic year. Juniors attend practicum for 7.5 hours each week for a minimum of 250 hours for the academic year. Both Juniors and Seniors will complete an additional 25 hours of professional development and social action activities each academic year.

Additional information about Practicum Education at the Adelphi University School of Social Work can be found in the School’s 2025-2026 PRACTICUM EDUCATION MANUAL

 

Additional Information for Undergraduate Students in the School of Social Work

Independent Study

Students may take up to nine credits of independent study with the permission of the director of the undergraduate program. Students must consult with a sponsoring faculty member before registering for each course.

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